Building with bottles

- the basics

building trust
international1
 building trust international

Komitu Architects
Text and images: More information on building with bottles:

Building Trust International

inari Virkkala www.aliteroflight.org
www.southofnorth.info
www.huskcambodia.org
www.nyit.edu/architecture/home2o/

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Building with Bottles:

Why bottles?

Community engagement

Verticlal bottle walls

Horizontal bottle walls

Glass bottles

Bottle buildings

Bottles for light

Building a bottle of light

Roofing with bottles

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Why bottles?
Packaging and plastic bottles are
ubiquitous today, making up a large
portion of waste and greenhouse gases
around the world.
Reuse is better than recycling, and bottles
are easy to reuse in building projects.
Providing a secondary function for bottles
keeps them out of landfill while offering a
readily available and economical building
material.
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Benefits of building with bottles
Reduces waste
Locally sourced
Preserves natural resources
Lowers carbon footprint
Inexpensive
Low tech, easy to use
Plastic or Glass?
There are different uses for different
types of bottles based on their material
characteristics. Plastic is usually used for
wall infill and plastered on the exterior,
while glass bottles can provide some
structure and bring in light.
All recycled bottles used in buildings help
to reduce the need for new materials and
lower the costs.
Community engagement
Using recycled materials such as bottles
to create building projects is a great way
to reduce costs on a build, educate the
local community about recycling and also
benifits the environment.
By connecting the project with the local
community and working with them to
collect plastic bottles and waste plastic
material from the project site, we can
work together to create a sustainable
building from recycled materials.
If the end users are involved in the
material sourcing or building process, they
have much greater sense of ownership
for the project and will more likely help
maintain the structure and its purpose.
The above image shows a poster asking
locals to collect recycled bottles for
workshop in Cambodia.
Husk Cambodia makes use of local
volunteers and promoting waste
management in Siem Reap. What they
call the Eco Block is plastic bottles, taking
the place of a brick.
Husk started a community collection
program where stuffed plastic bottles
were exchanged for food, school uniforms
or bikes, allowing everyone to get
involved.
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Vertical bottle walls

When a house is designed with a bearing 1. Build structural frame

frame, the walls can be filled with almost
anything (waste, sand, etc.) and then
plastered overtop.
By collecting plastic bottles and plastic
waste to be used as a wall infill improves
the surrounding environment and provides
inexpensive building materials.
2. Collect and fill bottles
3. Align bottles in wall cavity
3. Overlay frame with steel wires or
mesh to hold bottles together for better
structural interity

Placing bottles right side up within a frame 4. Stuff loose plastic around bottle gaps
is known as a vertical bottle wall, while
lying the bottles on their side is considered 5. Plaster wall for clean finish
a horizontal bottle wall.

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Kouk Khleang Youth Center

In Phnom Penh Cambodia, the Kouk
Khleang Youth Center is a good example
of a horizontal bottle wall.
To engage the community members,
they were paid 200 riel per bottle, which is
roughly the price of a red brick.
Overlaying the building frame with steel
wires or mesh helps to tie the wall together
and make the construction more solid.
After filling and assembling all the bottles,
gaps and voids in the wall are stuffed with
loose plastic in order to use less plaster.
The finished wall is plastered like normal for
a clean and common look.
An opening is left in the plaster to show
what the wall is made of, hoping that it
will inspire futher projects. To protect the
chicken wire from rust, a framed glass
panel should be added.
Kouk Khleang Youth Center
Komitu Architects
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 Illac Diaz:
The Bottle School, San Pablo Phiippines

Hoizontal Bottle walls

Following the idea of vertical bottle walls, Similarily, bottles can be used as infill for solid concrete
bottles can also be laid horizontally in forms, and reducing the amount of concrete needed.
courses between the structure.

After building a frame of concrete, wood

or steel, bottles are laid down and held
together with a mortar with the option of
finished plaster

For attaching chicken wire, pieces of

rebar should be casted to the frame. Nails
or screws can also be used to attach the
net and to tie the steel wires.

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 Bergen School of Architecture: Cambodia Eartships: HRS Architects:
School in Chimundo Residential bottle wall Women’s Centre, Rufisque

Glass bottle walls Build a glass bottle wall:

Glass has much more structural qualities 1. Collect bottles and cut off necks 3. Align grafted bottles in wall during
than plastic bottles, therefore not needing construction
to be used as an infill material. Glass
bottles can offer various aesthetics due to
its opacity and colour selection without
the need for plastering overtop.

Most often in construction, glass bottles

are cut, joined and laid horizontally 2. Tape bottle ends together
within the wall structure (usually earth
or concrete) to be used as an artistic
Other Recycled materials, such as metal
element bringing in light. However they
parts, car hubcaps and barrels can also
can also be used as building blocks with a
be used as ventilation or lighting elements
greater density for more recycled content.
that provide some security.
 Illac Diaz:
The Bottle School, San Pablo Phiippines

Bottle buildings

Glass bottles can be more than just With a combination of glass bottle panels
aesthetic, based on the amount of bottles and two liter plastic bottle walls, Illac Diaz
used within a solid wall, they can make and MyShelter Foundation built an entire
up a large percent of the structure. structure in the Philippines using bottles.

There have been initiatives to create The plastic bottles are filled with adobe
bottle building blocks that are meant to and layered horizontally in courses
serve as a recycled alternative to bricks. between mortar.

Heineken was the first to introduce glass

blocks in 1960 as a low cost housing
solution but unfortunately it did not
continue. Since then there have been
other similar whole building bottle ideas.
 Decoist
Wine bottle lighting
Bottles for light
Lighting is easy with bottles, most are
translucent and can be recycled or
reused as lamps or interior decorating
features. Larger glass bottles are popular
in rustic and crafty settings.
In addition to lighting spaces with glass
bottles in construction and interiors,
plastics can also be used in more high
tech and innovative ways as seen by Illiac
Diaz and Alfredo Moser.
“Liter of light“ - Solar bottle bulb
The solar bottle bulb targets impoversihed
populations living without electricity in
dense settlements, where even during the
day, their dwellings are extremely dark.
Water inside the bottle refracts sunlight
during the daytime and creates the same
intensity as a 55 watt light bulb, making
daylight affordable and easy.
This saves electricity and provides a way
of lighting for those who cannot afford it
while keeping homes secure. Illac Diaz and Alfredo Moser
The solar bottle bulb
 Steps to build a bottle of light

1. Draw two circles on a 9”x10” galvanized

iron sheet, one cricle 1” around the other

2. Cut out the smaller circle and

make slices into the larger circle so
that the peices can bend upwards.

3. Rub sandpaper on the bottle

so it has a better grip

4. Insert the bottle to the sheet

until the top third and put sealant
Building a bottle of light: around the top

Materials needed:
PET soda bottle 5. Once the sealant is dry,
Galvanized Iron (GI) sheet fill the bottle with water
Rubber sealant and 10ml of bleach and close
10ml Bleach
1000ml Filtered Water
6. Place the bottle in a hole cut
through the roof and drill holes in
each corner to attach rivets

7. Cover rivets, all edges of bottle

sheet and bottle cap with sealant

Source: www.isanglitrongliwanag.org

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 Louisa Loakes Garth Britzman 1+1>2 international architecture JSC
Fizzy bottle roof, Deen City Farm POP culture canopy Bottle Seedling House, Vietnam

Roofing with bottles

Plastic bottles along with other recycled Design faculty and students from the New York Institute of Technology have created
materials are often used for roofing, usually the Home20 project, a patented model for roofing made from a crate of water bottles.
as crushed plastic for waterproofing. They
can be very simple and artistic or have
more uses with high tech properties.

More research is going into providing

recycled material solutions in post disaster
and low income contexts, where tons of
water bottles and plastics are imported to
areas in need of immediate shelter.

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international

www.buildingtrustinternational.org
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